Summer 2008

Eart220 will meet for the first time on Monday 9/29 in room E&MS D250, 2:00-3:30 pm. The class will meet subsequent Mon and Wed afternoons at the same time, in the same place. At present we have a lab room in E&MS and the Kresge Computer Lab reserved for Tues 12:00-3:00 pm.

I have not yet placed orders for the course books, but will do so soon. I will also be preparing a course reader. We start right away on Monday 9/29 learning about (reviewing) ground water mechanics, and at the first lab session we will begin with linear algebra and MATLAB programming.

Course overview:

Eart220, Ground Water Modeling, is a quantitatively demanding course that provides a conceptual and practical introduction to ground water modeling techniques and tools. The course is divided into three components: a whirlwind overview/review of ground water mechanics, finite difference theory and code development, and modeling applications. Students complete eight problem sets/programming assignments, including writing finite difference code and solving practical problems with MODFLOW, a public-domain groundwater model. We also read and discuss modeling papers from the open literature. Students prepare a final critique and/or a final modeling project and make a class presentation. This is a graduate level course, but exceptional undergraduate students can benefit from taking it as well, provided they have sufficient background in mathematics (calculus definitely, differential equations helps) and hydrogeology (Eart146, Eart116, or equivalent).

Normally I teach Ground Water Modeling about once every 2-3 years, when there are enough interested students to justify the effort (usually 6-8). The class was last taught in Fall 2006, will be taught next in Fall 2008, after that...who knows.

Eart220 syllabus (last updated in 2006, new version coming soon)